Upside Down
by ScarletDeva
Summary: Choices make us who we are. Mostly we make them thinking we're doing the best we can. Sometimes that's true. And sometimes that's not. Dumbledore makes a choice and now Hermione has to make her own. And the world will be turned upside down. AUish


**Upside Down**

By: ScarletDeva

Author's Note: It was a really strange idea that came to me. I don't know if I should continue it. I welcome ideas and suggestions.

Disclaimer: No I do not own the nice Harry Potter characters. If I did, I'd be rich. That'd be nice.

Dedication: To Kyla. So you grow up to be just like us.

Rating: PG just in case.

Genre: Drama

* * *

She didn't get Head Girl. 

She really, truly didn't get Head Girl.

Really.

Hermione Granger, seventh year Hogwarts student and everyone's shoe-in candidate for Head Girl, toyed blankly with her prefect badge as she stared out the window onto the school grounds. Disappointment warred with shock over her paled face, her fingers moving with twitchy jerks.

She had expected to receive the HG badge at the start of the summer. She didn't. She spent the warm, muggy months between the end of school and the first of September clinging to the hope that the Headmaster had intended to present her with it on the first day of school. That hope faded, worn and tattered by each coming sunset and now it was dashed into tiny crystalline pieces that made up the tears that she wasn't going to cry. She wanted to though. All systems were set to hysterics when she saw Megan Jones sporting the badge she always knew would be hers. But she controlled herself and smiled politely, unable to bring herself to clap. Megan wasn't even a prefect. But she was Head Girl so obviously that didn't matter. The worst part was that Ron was Head Boy. Ron. Who deserved the post so much less than she deserved the one she didn't get.

She heard an odd sound and looked up startled, flushing faintly when she realized the sound was a low growl and it came from her.

Well, she reflected a moment later, I am entitled to some growling. Hermione wasn't just prefect since her fifth year. She was the best student in the school and a major force in the battle against He Whose Name is Damned in the Lowest Bowels of Hell. So what went wrong? She resolved to see Dumbledore at her soonest possible convenience. His convenience was no longer her concern. Not if he couldn't appreciate her skills and efforts.

"Sulking Granger?" a familiar voice oozed from the shadows.

She spun around with a look of mild annoyance. Malfoy had toned down his remarks since his father's arrest and even the favorable, if totally unjustified, outcome of the trial last November did nothing to get him back to his insults about her blood. Instead he generally stuck to her brains, looks and choice in friends. That didn't bother her much. Still, he chose a bad moment to annoy her right then.

"What do you want?" she bit out, pinning the prefect badge to her jumper and letting her hands fall neatly to her sides.

He stepped into the faint light of the bronze sconce, the flame casting his features into sharp contrast, his eyes glittering almost malevolently in a sort of grey chrome.

"Just to see how you are doing," he said casually, a corner of his mouth lifting.

"And just for a novelty, why don't you try the truth," she snapped back irately.

His smirk, or maybe it was partly a smile... She shook her head slightly. His smirk widened slightly.

"Oh but I am," he said, his voice low and rich with an innuendo she couldn't decipher. "I am quite curious as to how you are doing. Especially after you spent six years working yourself to exhaustion, quite dead-set to prove yourself to the world and now all that is thrown aside for someone whose OWLS are mediocre and whose only boast of success is one fluke of a Quidditch game against Gryffindor."

She stared at him blankly. "If the Headmaster picked Megan then she deserved it."

He lifted one platinum eyebrow. "Did she really? Rather like Weasel deserved to be Head Boy. Which is to say not at all."

Whatever dangerous or villainous tones were apparent when he first appeared seemed to her to be quite gone. Her dark brown eyes studied him carefully. "You sound almost sympathetic Malfoy. Isn't it against the Slytherin code to show emotion to a Gryffindor? You should be careful. You wouldn't want them to throw you out."

The curve of his lips was now definitely a smile. Somewhat cold and quite cynical but definitely a smile.

"Well Granger maybe I want to be thrown out," he drawled, stepping closer, his ambience turning predatory as his eyes narrowed. "Maybe I want some change." His head tilted down slightly, his gaze meeting hers and his expression changed lightning quick. "Or maybe I am as angry as you are for being passed over for someone unworthy. Maybe I was only one OWL behind you and maybe I am the second ranked student in the class. And maybe... well I am sure you aren't interested in this." The unusual smile returned and he made a quick, courtly bow, a faint tint of mockery in his eyes, before turning to go.

Her mouth worked before her brain did. "Wait!"

He halted.

"Hold on Malfoy," she spoke deliberately, some part of her mind berating herself for not just letting him go, "you can't just spew that out and walk away."

He turned back and leaned against the wall in his usual, cool as ice sort of way. "I can't?"

"No," she affirmed and now she was the one who stepped closer. "Are you really second ranked in the class?"

Something passed over his face that she couldn't read.

"Third," he admitted calmly. "Padma Patil is second. But she and I were tied for OWLS."

Her fingers lifted, running over the smooth, cold metal of her prefect badge. She should have probably left when he showed up, instead of risking herself by conversing with the son of a known Death Eater. But she was too caught by her disappointment, not just in not getting what she wanted but also in the people who she thought understood what she was and what she deserved. It was as if they were saying that she was good enough to be given loads of research work for the Order but in the end she was just a work horse and counted for nothing. Unappreciated. That was how she felt. And it was what currently kept her mind on the issue rather than the implications of actually communicating with Draco Malfoy.

"So what exactly do you want from me?" she asked thoughtfully. "Help with revenge?" It was no credit to herself, and she admitted to it in the back of her mind, that she was somewhat tempted by the idea.

"Ah so there is a reason they think you're smart," he said and she could have sworn he was teasing her, but since when did Malfoy tease... "But no. Not quite."

"Not quite..." she echoed, brushing a thick curl out of her face with an impatient movement. What then?"

He pushed off the wall, straightening, and took a step toward her, almost, but not quite, invading her personal space. "Well," he dragged out, "I think we have a common problem. They don't notice us. Not really. And I think it's time we forced them to notice us. And remember us. And respect us." There was a controlled passion in his voice and she wondered if she would have noticed it if she hadn't been weighing each and every word he uttered.

She shifted from foot to foot, suddenly somewhat self-conscious in the face of his quiet intensity. "What did you have in mind?"

He was silent.

"Malfoy?" she called his name.

He gave her an enigmatic look. "I thought we might work out a plan together. They know what to expect from me and they know what to expect from you, but they cannot predict our combined thinking."

She blinked slightly. It was beginning to sound like, well... it was already sounding like it was a case of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy against the world. Somehow the idea wasn't as repulsive as she was sure it should have been. Besides, even her patience and sacrifices had limits.

"No causing serious harm to anyone, no Dark Arts and don't expect me to suddenly become a Slytherin supporter," she listed, not quite realizing that she was agreeing to the deal by making these requirements.

He smiled slowly. "It's just a partnership, Granger, not till death do us part. And no, no harm and no Dark Arts."

She stared at him. Till death do us part? Why would that even occur to him... She shook her head then jerked up, not wanting him to think she meant to turn down the offer.

"Alright," she said firmly, tapping her fingers against her prefect badge to remind herself why she was doing this. Though why she needed that reminder was anyone's guess.

If his smiles shocked her what he did next absolutely stunned her. He grinned. The grin was smug, self satisfied, amused and anticipatory. But it was a grin. "Granger, we're going to turn Hogwarts upside down."

She couldn't hold back a soft laugh, unsure if she was amused or hysterical. Possibly both.

"Yes Malfoy, we surely are."


End file.
